Boomer Musings

Boomer Musings

By J. Leslie Riseden

Pandora. Spotify. iHeartRadio. Sirius. Uploading. Downloading. Streaming. Sharing. Music on your TV. Music in your car. Music on your phone. There are so many options for listening to music, it defies logic. Really? When we were kids, we had two ways to hear our favorite songs: radio or record player. Two ways. That was it.

We kept the radio on all day, just to be sure we didn’t miss it when they played the new Bobby Vee song. We suffered through commercials, news, contests, and more commercials. Then … finally… there it was. “Shhh. Everybody be quiet. Here it is.” “… ‘cause the niiiiiiight … has a thousand eyyyyyyyes.”

And we sat, rapt, for the 2.5 minutes it took to play. It might be hours before they played it again. No pause, no rewind, no repeat. We savored the moment.

Among us, there were record collectors ... those with allowances that permitted them the luxury of the latest 45 every week or so. These were the people always invited to the parties. (Oh, and … can you bring your records?) There might be a stereo record player that permitted us to stack a dozen or so records for consecutive play. But, usually, we had to fiddle with that little plastic insert, and play them one at a time. Most records had a scratch or two (from being stacked and shuffled like a deck of cards, no doubt.) Sometimes the scratch would cause the record to skip, and sometimes it actually made it jump back and repeat the same line over and over until you moved the needle. (Do your grandchildren stare at you with a blank look when you tell them they sound like a broken record?)

Phonophiles tell us there is nothing to compare with a vinyl version of good jazz … that almost indistinguishable crackle from a track played so often it is worn white. I admit, I still have over 200 LPs that have been packed up and moved with me for three-fourths of my life. I even have a turntable, receiver and stereo speakers. I should really hook all that equipment up. But, then again, I can just listen to the music station on the TV. Maybe I’ll do that next week.